Day: February 7, 2017

The Trump administration got off to a busy start following the president’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2017 and it is reportedly seeking a new communications director to “lighten the load” of White House press secretary Sean Spicer, according to sources who spoke with CNN.

Sources told CNN the president is not thrilled with Spicer’s performance over the last few weeks. (Perhaps President Trump is more upset that Spicer was portrayed by a woman on SNL last week.)

How long do you think he has? Leave your estimate in the comments. I’ll say he’s gone by March 2nd.

The most recent SNL, in which Melissa McCarthy lampooned White House press secretary Sean Spicer, nabbed a 2.5 rating among adults 18-49, according to TVLine’s sister site, Variety. As such, the late-night laugher ranked behind only CBS’ The Big Bang Theory as the highest rated program in the demo. These numbers are in line with SNL‘s overall Season 42 viewership — its best since Season 20 — which is up 19 percent in the demo and 22 percent in total viewers over last year.

Like peanut butter? Chicken? Then this African chicken peanut stew by Hank is for you. Perfect for chilly weather. ~Elise

Chicken, sweet potatoes and peanuts are one of those magical flavor combinations that make me feel all warm and happy, especially because I never would have thought to do this 20 years ago, when I met some fellow University of Wisconsin students from Ghana who made this stew at their apartment.

Chicken groundnut stew is, in various forms, common all over West Africa, and this is my version, inspired by my colleagues at UW.

The best way to make this stew is with two whole stewing hens—older chickens available at Asian and Latin markets. You start by simmering the birds to make stock, which then becomes the base of the stew, and then you use the meat from the hens.

“One of the most important jobs in our government is the Secretary of Education, who directly oversees the policies that children, teachers, school administrators, and entire communities depend on,” said Sen. Franken. “It’s not a job for amateurs who don’t know the first thing about education. I voted against the nomination of Betsy DeVos, a billionaire Republican donor, because she is the most incompetent cabinet-level nominee I have ever seen. Last night, I urged my Republican colleagues to oppose her nomination, because if we cannot set party loyalty aside long enough to perform the essential duty of vetting the President’s nominees, then I don’t know what we are even doing here. Betsy DeVos has demonstrated that she is fundamentally unqualified to lead the Education Department, and it’s a shame that Republicans voted to confirm one of their major donors instead of looking out for our children.”

(CNN)Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to President Donald Trump, said Monday that the administration will continue using the term “fake news” until the media understands that their “monumental desire” to attack the President is wrong.
“There is a monumental desire on behalf of the majority of the media, not just the pollsters, the majority of the media to attack a duly elected President in the second week of his term,” Gorka, a former Breitbart editor who also holds a PhD in political science, told syndicated conservative radio host Michael Medved.
“That’s how unhealthy the situation is and until the media understands how wrong that attitude is, and how it hurts their credibility, we are going to continue to say, ‘fake news.’ I’m sorry, Michael. That’s the reality,” he added.

President Trump continued his war on facts Tuesday, inaccurately claiming that the nation’s murder rate was the highest it’s been in nearly 50 years.

Trump was holding a listening session with county sheriffs from across the U.S. at the White House Tuesday morning when he made the untrue statement.

Trump said that the U.S. murder rate was the highest it had been “in 45 to 47 years” — a claim he had also made on the campaign trail numerous times.

According to the FBI, however, the estimated number of murders in 2015, the last year for which records are complete, was 15,696. That puts the murder rate at 4.9 per 100,000 inhabitants.

Those numbers are well below the national numbers provided by the FBI from 1970, 1971 and 1972, which would be 45 to 47 years ago, when the murder rates were 7.9, 8.6 and 9.0, per 100,000 people, respectively.